1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric connector, and more particularly to a board-surface mounting type electric connector which is suitable for making an electrical connection between two printed circuits.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known, there are a variety of electrical connectors of the type which are adapted to be mounted to printed boards. One type of electric connector has a plurality of terminals fixed to its housing. In use, the housing is fixed to a printed board by using fixing means, and the terminals are soldered to the circuit pattern at their soldering tails.
There are two kinds of board-surface mounting type electric connectors. One board-surface mounting type electric connector uses terminals whose tails are to be soldered to the circuit pattern over their full length. The other board-surface mounting type electric connector uses terminals each having a stepwise-bent tail composed of a soldering portion and a non-soldering portion. The non-soldering portion extends at a level which is higher than the soldering portion. Thus, when the soldering portion of each terminal tail is soldered to the printed circuit, the non-soldering portion extends just above the printed board, leaving a small space therebetween.
These conventional electric connectors are almost satisfactory. However, they still have some defects. With the electric connector in which the full length of each tail is soldered to a printed circuit, the soldering area is large. The relatively large soldering area assures that terminals can be soldered firmly to a printed circuit. However, this large soldering area reduces the area on which electric circuits can be printed. With the other prior art electric connector whose terminals have stepwise-bent tails each composed of lower soldering and upper non-soldering portions, the soldering area is smaller, increasing the area on the printed board on which electrical circuits can be printed. However, the relatively small soldering area available tends to create unreliable soldering of terminals. Also because it is necessary that the non-soldering portion of the terminal tail extend at such a raised level so that it will not contact the surface of the underlying printed board, the height of electric connector must be increased.
Neither the former nor later type conventional electric connector has anti-floating means to prevent the soldering tail of each terminal from rising or sinking with respect to a given reference level. Since the soldering tail is made of a narrow piece of metal, it can easily change its shape and rise or sink with respect to a given reference level. This floating tendency causes inconvenience in soldering terminal tails on printed boards.